Carding machine



April 26 1927' J. PLATT E CARDING MACHINE Filed June 23, 1925 Patented Apr. 26, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN PLATT, OF HARROW, ENGLAND, AND WILLIAM PLATT AND HENRY PTATT, OF ROUBAIX, FRANCE.

CARDING- MACHINE.

Application filed .Tune 23, 1925, Serial No. 38,952, and in Germany Ju1y 1, 1924.

This invention relates to carding machines and has particular reference to that part of the machine which comprises the carding rollers or organs known as the swifts and dofl ers. which are covered with a Clothing comprising a leather or fabric and rubber foundation into which are set staples made of fine steel pointed wire of bent or knee formation for the purpose of parallelizing the fibres of cotton, worsted and wool and other teXtile fibres. This form of card Clothing which will be hereinafter referred to as the ordinary card Clothing is universally used on the swifts, workers or flats and dofers of all carding machines, which are of course distinct from machines known as waste openers Or Garnett machines, wherein the rollers are usually covered with serrated or saw toothed wire on which the teeth are strong and coarse for opening up the material prior to carding. During the carding of fibres in the carding machine the material tends to accumulate at the bottom of the teeth owing to the bent or knee shaped form of the latter and this aceumulation increases until it reaches the points or outer ends of the teeth when it becomes necessary to stop the operation of the machine in order to remove the accumulation which is generally called the strippings or fettlingsf This cleaning or fet-tling operation has to be efiected after the machine has been running for a comparatively short time, and consequently the output of the carding machine is somewhat restricted.

The object of the present invention is to avoid or reduce this accunulation of the material on the Swift and dotler so that a nuch longer uninterrupted operation of the carding machine can be eected. This is accomplished according to the present invention by using in conjunction with a Swift clothed with the ordinary `card Clothing, a dofl'er which is clothed with a Wire wound round the same and provided with rigid, slender teeth that taper from base to point so that they are of ncedle like formation without any bend or kink such as exists in the teeth of the ordinary card Clothing. This form of clothing on the dof'fer provides a series of straight needle-like teeth which are set at an anglo and enable the material to be easily thrown ofiz' and removed by the dofiing comb during the revolution of the doffer so that the latter is at all times free or clear of accumulation and can take up or receive the material from the switt, with the result that the Swift is automatically maintained clear of accumulation, thereby eliminating` the necessity of frequent stoppages of the machine for cleaning the swi't't and doller so that the carding operation can be effected continuously for much longer periods than heretofore, thus substantially increasing the output of the car-ding machine. In addition to *this important advance in the art, the material removed by the dofiing comb is cleaner and more satisfactorily carded, as the nips, dirt, etc. are more easily thrown out through the grids under the rollers owing to the teeth on the swit't and the doffer being maintained free or clear of accumulation. By this invention we can produce a more even film and greater regularity in the silver which is a matter of considerable importance.

In order that the present invention may be more clearly understood and readily car; ried into effect, the same will now be more fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 illustrates diagrammatieally so much of a well known type of a cotton carding machine as is necessary for a proper understanding of this invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary diagrammatic view showing portions of the Swift and dofer clothed according to the present invention.

Figure 3 isan enlarged side View of a portion of the card Clothing wire'provided on the dofl er according to this invention.

Figure 4: is a fragmentary sectional View showing several convolutions of the clothing wire on the doter according to this invention.

Figures 5 and G are respectively an end view and an elevation ot' the dofl'er illustrating the manner in which the clothing wire is applied thercto.

Referring to Figure 1, A, A represent the feeding rollers which supply the raw cotton or other material to the licker-in roller B which as usual is covered with coarse teeth for efiecting the opening ot the more or less clotted or matted material and supplies the opened material to the cylinder or Swift C. In the example shown D, D represent carding flats which are provided with the ordinary form of card Clothing for co-operating` with the ordinary card clothing on the Swift. instead ot enploying; carding flats as shown, 'ollers known as workers and covered witl'r the (u'dinary card clothing may be employed for co-operating with the Swift as is done for the woolen and worsted carding engines. receives or takes the material trein the switt C, the material being' afterwards taken from' the doler by the dofling cenb Fand finally coiled out as indicated at G. The general arrangement as shown in Figure 1 is of course quite a usual one and does not .require detaileddescription, hut as the :invention is concerned' with the (zo-operation of the switt C and the doflz'er E, the operation which takes place with regard to these two rollers will now bemore fully described. For this purpose it is necessary to refer more' tully to the ordinary form of card clothing which is provided on the Swift and heretoiore on the dofi'er, so that the dihculties and objections which exist in nachines at present in use and the means provided according to this invention for overcoming the same can be readily appreciated. The ordinary :form ot card lothing at present in use on both the Swift and doffer is represented in Fig; ure 2 by C In Figure 2 C represents the teeth and C indicates the rubber and fabric or other .soft foundation in which the teeth are set. The teeth are bent near their lower parts for cotton carding (and at the middle for worsted carding) so as to have a kind of knee shaped formation as indicated at C In practice, the teeth are oppesitely directed or inclined on the Swift and the doifer so that during; the revolution of the Swift and the dofier in the directions shown by the arrows in Figure 1, the dofter which rota'tes slower than the Swift can take the naterialfrom the Swift and carry it to the doffing comb F which renoves it so that it can be eoiled out as shown at G. As the carcliig*` operation continues some of the material which slips down to the bottom of the teeth below the bend 0 tends to remain there as the bend holds it and as the dofling comb G works at the face'` or outer ends of the teeth and not at the bottom,` it cannot remove this material which therefore starts accunul'ating at the bottom of the teeth. As the material accunulates on the dofier the latter becomes less and less able" to take the material from the Swift. During' the revolueen' of the swit't the material which escapes the operation of the dofi'er is carried round on the' Swift so that it m'eets the' material which' is supplied by the licker-in roller B, The material which has escaped the dofier tends to be forced towards the bottom of the teeth on the swift by the new material supplied and fed over it by the licker-in roller so that it is carried round on the Swift under the new material in the form' of a E indicates the doter which ezaeee layer to the flats or workers, then again to the doi'ler and so on. This accunulation on the switt becomes thicker and thicl-er until it eventually reaches the points of the teeth which become clogged with iuattcd material, nips, dirt, etc., entangled with the new fihres i'ed over then), thus adding to the difficulty of stripping by the (letter. lt is evident that when' both the cloth-inn' on the switt and doter has become clogegd to th s extent good crding is impossible. At th u which occurs after about three hours work inn' when ca't ling' cottou and after about :forty eight hours 'when carding worstcd, the machine has to be stopped to enable the mut and the dollers to he cleaned or' tettied, thus restricting the Output of the machine, whilst time and, labour are wasted in peri'c'rming the cleaning* operation wh ch' can practicallybe aroided by the present invention, so that a practically continuous carding operation can he eitected with better results ashoth the Swift and the doiier remain clear of accumulation of the fibres, dirt, nips, etc., during' the running oi' the machine and d`urinn* the actual call-ding operation.

The objections above referred to with regard to the existing` machines are overcome according to the present invention by eniploying in conjunction with a switt clothed with the ordinary card Clothing a doil'er on which is substituted for the ordinary card Clothing, a Clothing' which not only prc vents accunulation on the doffer but also automaticallymaintains the ordinary card clothing on the Swift clean and tree trein accun'ulation during the operation of the ina- Chine For this purpose the doller is covered with a Clothing in the form of a continuous length of wire H which is wound ro nd the doii er and isformed' with straight ri d teth H i ncli ned in the same direction, the teeth being slender and tapering from base to point as shown in Figures 3 and 4, so that they are much higher than? the Width ot their bases, as' shown in Figure 3, and may be regarded as needle, like teeth.. The wire foundation K is slightly thicker than the teeth K as shown in Figure t so as to provide an oiset portion which serves as a spacing piece to maintain the circumferential rows of teeth a short distance apart When'the wire is wound' round the doifer in a continuous length as shown in Figures 5 and 6. The peripheral surface of the dofi'er is plain, that is ungrooved, so that the various convolutions ot the wire H can be wound on the said surface to lie in contact with each other as shown in Figure 4, with the result that owing to the large number of teeth which are provided per linear inch on the wire a considerable number of points or teeth per square inch can he obtained and the number may be equal to or may exceed, the number of points per square inch provided in the ordinary card Clothing. For instance, as many as 450 to 600 points per square inch, according to the nature of the raw material to be carded can be provided in the Clothing on the dotler according to this invention. It will be therefore nnderstood that in addition to the close disposition ot' the teeth along the length ot the wire, the wire itself must only slightly exceed the thickness of the teeth to enable the desired number of teeth to be provided on the dotl'er Whilst at the same time atl'ording sufficient room for the fibres to pass down the teeth between the circumferential rows. As the teeth are rigid when the wire is wound on the dotl'er and owing to the factthat they are straight as distinct 'from knee shaped formation, the material is not held back in any way on the dotter, which therefore can be readily stripped or cleared by the do'fing comb; the augle at which these rigid and straight teeth are set also assists in the material being readily removed by the dofiing comb. The dotl'er clothed in this manner therefore not only remains clear ot strippings, dirt, nips etc., but immediately and continuously clears the Swift Which is covered With the ordinary card clothing, this being due to the fact that the teeth on the dofter are always clear and therefore are free to take all the material which is presented to it by the Swift, Which is not the case in the old system. As a matter of fact, the dot'er accordin to this invention Would, it' placed in a macline having a Swift full of strippings and fettings, immediately start to clear the Swift. By the present invention a oarding machine can be operated for long periods Without stoppages for cleaning the Swift and doffer owing to the automatic cleaning efi'ected by the dofter clothed with the card Clothing wire herein described, and in addition to increasing the Output ot the machine the material is carded more satisfactorily as dirt, nips, etc., can be more readily thrown out owing to accumulation of the fibres on the teeth being avoided. The present invention also avoids the use of expensive vacuum stripping machines and other machines used for strippig and cleaning the rollers.

What we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent ozl' the United States is 1. In a carding machine, the combination with a Swift clothed with the ordinary card clothing ot a doti'er which is clothed With a clothing comprisi'g straight and rigid teeth that taper :from bottom to top to provide needle-like points.

In a cardin machine, the combination with a Swift clothed with the ordinary card Clothing, ot' a dofier clothed With a Clothing in the :form of a wire Which is wound round the dofi'er and is provided With a straight and rigid teeth that taper from bottom to top so as to provide needle-like points.

JOHN PLATT. lVILLIAM PLATT. HENRY PLATT` 

